“We are in the process of putting together a package to win us the 2018 Royal Bank Cup.”
— Terrier Club President,
Dave Baron
This year’s Yorkton Terriers Sportsmen’s Dinner came with a rather big announcement for both the team and the city.
During his remarks Saturday Terrier Club President Dave Baron announced the franchise will be applying to host the 2018 edition of the Royal Bank Cup (RBC).
“We are in the process of putting together a package to win us the 2018 Royal Bank Cup,” he told the approximate 400 in attendance.
The decision to apply for the RBC came after deciding not to proceed with an offer to host the Western Canada Cup (WCC) a couple of seasons ago.
“We got to within about a week of putting in that bid,” said Baron, who added with “some sober second thought,” it was determined the WCC “was just not right for us.”
But the RBC which is an annual ice hockey competition that determines the Canadian Junior A champion, which is played under the supervision of Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League, was seen as a better fit.
The event was hosted in Yorkton one time previously; 1999. The local Terriers lost out in the semi-finals. The Vernon Vipers would win the championship 9-3 over the Charlottetown Abbies.
Baron said with the prestige of a national championship, and the final game being broadcast nationally on TSN it is easy for local hockey fans to want to be at the RBC. But, he challenged people to think differently about the bid and event.
“We want you to be saying ‘I want to be part of it.”
Baron said while the hockey will highlight the RBC, with four regional representatives and the host Terriers, they are looking to create a large event.
“We want to spotlight everything good about this part of Saskatchewan,” he said, adding that is an area from Wynyard to the Manitoba border, and means everything “from perogies to potash to First Nations and Ukrainians.”
To make the event all-encompassing, there will need to volunteers.
“What we need is you to be a small part of it,” said Baron.
Terrier manger and head coach Trent Cassan said if the team were to get the RBC it would be an obvious positive for the city and region, but he added the bid is simply “the first step.”
And in terms of the team on the ice now, next season and in the potential RBC host season, making a bid alone doesn’t change things, he said.
Although the timing does seem a good one in terms of player personnel.
“We have a young, core group of guys,” said Cassan, and while players have many options over time they can explore.
“In Junior hockey so many things change year-to-year,” he said,
Hosting an RBC would be another reason to stay a Terrier.
One goal of the team hosting the RBC is to spur development of a new dressing room and training room area for the Terriers to replace the cramped quarters they are now in at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
“We hope to have a Terrier complex build by then,” said Baron, adding that would then allow more rooms for the AAA Midget Maulers who are relegated to storage under the seating area, and for other minor hockey teams who could backfill the current Terrier area.
Baron said the initial construction might only be “a box we can finish as we can afford” but the area is sorely needed now.
To make the dressing rooms happen the Terriers will need the City of Yorkton to help.
“We have been back and forth on this,” Baron told Yorkton This Week. “We think they’re going to be strong partners.”
Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney, who attended the dinner, said it was always a positive for the community when a volunteer-based organization steps up to try and bring a major event here.
“It’s always encouraging when people rise to the occasion like this,” he said.
But when it came to the issue if dressing rooms the support cooled.
“It would be really hard,” said Maloney, noting the timeframe. “There’s no money set aside.
“We’d like to work the Terriers. But, it’s a difficult process given the City’s finances.”
Maloney said the Terriers have suggested investing in the project in the past, but to-date nothing concrete has come forward in terms of the team offering up dollars, and for a small city such as Yorkton provincial and federal dollars for such projects does not seem to happen anymore.
Maloney did agree there current dressing rooms are antiquated.
“Something needs to be done. There’s a situation that needs to be addressed,” he said, but reiterated finances are limited and the timing of an upgrade not determined.
The Terrier bid is just that a bid. There are likely to be others submitted with Kindersley, Brooks, AB, and Chilliwack B.C. having been suggested as possible suitors.
Baron said the official package must be in this March.
In that regard Baron said he does encourage businesses and organizations in the city and region to offer letters of support which can be part of the package, to show just how broad interest is locally.
And the public announcement of who will host the 2018 event will be made in November.
The Terriers have been involved in five RBC Championship tournaments. The first was in 1991, in Sudbury ON. when the event was known as the Centennial Cup.
Yorkton was then in Melfort in 1996, and Brampton, ON. in 2006, before finally winning the national crown in Vernon, B.C. in 2014, with a 4-3 overtime win over the Carleton Place Canadians.
The RBC was last hosted by an SJHL team in 2012; Humboldt. This year the event is being hosted by Lloydminster of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and in 2017 it will be held in Cobourg, Ont.
